Routine, something I am not the best at but something that when I do have it I am a way happier human. My family and I are creatures of habit, we like our routine, our rut, doing the same thing every day, it’s a good thing.  So Garrett and I are always talking about how to make our routine better, more “adultier” more “parentier.”  Like eating an earlier supper with more vegetables and putting the girls to bed at an earlier time, which is pretty easy in the winter because he comes home earlier from the field since the Sun goes to bed earlier, it’s great.  We can probably have supper around 6:30, and then Garrett can play with the girls which they absolutely love, and we still have time for bath time and the rest of our “routine.”  It’s not as easy though once time changes, then Garrett doesn’t get home till around 8-8:30 and our whole routine has to change, which is a story for a different time.


So, our nightly routine consists of Lilli and I making supper together, she’s great I’m hoping she will turn into a chef and start cooking for us, like 5 star meals, THAT would be great. While Lilli and I cook Hayzli crawls all over the floor like a freaking’ cheetah, I’m not kidding she’s fast. It’s horrible, and she has no fear, I turn around to put something on the stove and also make sure Lilli hasn’t decided to see if she can cook her foot, turn back around to see where Hayzli is and she’s nowhere to be seen because she cheetah crawled across the room to under the kitchen table and now has some kinda mystery food she found on the floor (our house is not clean ever I try but I personally am not that tidy of a human my mama tried though but I got my father’s tidiness which is none) in her mouth making a weird face. AHHH then I freak out start saying “No HAYZLI!” I quickly throw Lilli off the counter (because I’m afraid she will fall off if I’m not right there) now she’s mad “MAMA PUT ME BACK ON THE COUNTER I’M COOKING,” and run to get Hayzli from under the table hit my head in the process and then dig out the mystery food from her throat, put her back in the center of the living room and start the whole process again.

We do this for about an hour making supper. Then Daddy gets home and we all sit down for supper. Lilli likes to say the dinner prayer, its great you never know what she is going to pray for or thank God for oh I love it sometimes it’s a 10 second prayer and sometimes we sit there and she prays for a good 5 minutes those are the best she thanks God for everything from the chocolate milk to the cats litter box. Then we eat which is a challenge for Lilli in her head she should only have to have 1 bite of each food group and then she should be done. So we go into “Lilli you have to have 3 more bites of that and 4 more bites of this” which she counter acts with “mama no only 5 more bites of this and 6 of that” which we totally agree to and also have to hold back our laughter at her 3 year old logic. While all this is going on Hayzli is in her highchair covered from head to toe in baby food because why eat it when you can spit it out of your mouth and rub it on your body like lotion? It’s a serious time for Hayzli she concentrates real hard, can’t leave any spot dry. So many rolls on this Chunka Chunka burnin’ love and she can’t leave one crease without some banana, apple, and strawberry mush on it.
Then it’s bath time, which is always fun. Water everywhere….. Everywhere. Lilli likes to play with all her bath toys and Hayzli likes to kick and hit the water as hard as she can so it splashes everywhere. Garrett and I tag team on bath time which is great he can get one out and start drying them off while I finish the other.
Now, here is what I’ve been leading up to, so after we get outta the bath and put our jammies on its time for Lilli to brush her teeth and go potty before we read our nightly book and say our bedtime prayers. She’s recently decided that she is a big girl and she can brush her teeth and go potty all by herself, she doesn’t even want us in the bathroom with her. She will bring her stool in from her bedroom so she can reach the sink then she will close the door and LOCK IT… we have a key so we let her pretend she has the control haha. Well she’s been doing this potty and brush her teeth in private for about 2 or 3 weeks and she’s in there for a good 10 minutes every night. Last night, we decided maybe we should watch her private routine, oh my goodness, after the fight about not wanting us in there with her she went about her routine. It all started out fine Garrett and I were really proud of how well she was brushing her teeth and then everything went south. Lilli’s bathroom is also the guest bathroom which means everyone that comes over uses it (omg I’m having to calm myself just reliving the situation) here is where I am ashamed of myself for not being a cleaner human even though I am not tidy I am extremely OCD about my children and germs. Yes I know it makes absolutely no sense. So she finishes brushing her teeth rinses her toothbrush off then proceeds to start scrubbing the sink, faucet and counter top with her toothbrush. AHHHHHHHHHHH “what are you doing LILLI, WHAT ARE YOU DOING??” “I’m just cleaning Mama” she says so nonchalantly and continues to keep scrubbing. Garrett loses it busts out laughing/gagging and runs away with Hayzli knowing I’m about to lose it. Leaving me and my toothbrush scrubbing daughter in her extremely clean bathroom. “Oh Lilli what else do you scrub with your toothbrush?” “Baby we don’t clean with our bathroom with our toothbrush” I’m almost in tears trying to hold back gagging and yelling. “Just everything mama” “why can’t we clean with our toothbrush?” “we clean our mouth with our toothbrush” I as calmly as I can tell her we only clean our mouth with our toothbrush take her toothbrush and pray that she hasn’t cleaned the potty with her toothbrush OMG. I can hear Garrett in the other room laughing quite hard. She says ok we potty and head to her room for a story and bedtime prayers. I don’t really remember what happened during those 10 minutes because all I could think about is what kind of germs my daughter had harboring in her “clean mouth.” Oh Lordy.

We finished our nightly routine, and went to bed it was all a blur. Needless to say our routine will change a little there will be no private brushing teeth for Lilli time in the near future.